1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the management of an electronic document file.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, it has been requested that quality control is to be improved by, for example, acquiring an approval of the ISO (International Organization for Standardization), receiving a periodic examination after the approval, etc. It is necessary to perform the quality control by reviewing a document file about a target product and updating it as necessary based on a so-called PDCA cycle (plan→do→check →act). It is also necessary not only to update the document file, but also trace a previous document file. Therefore, in the quality control, it is important not only to update a document, but also to keep a history of the document. Conventionally, the management of a document has been disclosed by, for example, Japanese Published Patent Application No. H06-259293, Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2001-175516, Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-251304, and Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2004-206466.
The Japanese Published Patent Application No. H06-259293 discloses an apparatus for collectively deleting unnecessary documents by managing a document file by an access frequency and a user ID, and deleting only document files which have not been accessed for a predetermined period in the documents generated by a user.
The Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2001-175516 discloses an electronic filing apparatus for transferring a document file which is stored in a storage device and has a low use frequency to an external device, and deleting the document file from the storage device.
The Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2002-251304 discloses a document management apparatus for setting attribute information indicating the importance for each document file, and deleting only a document file whose value of the attribute information is smaller than a reference value after a storage term has passed.
The Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2004-206466 discloses a document management apparatus capable of notifying a first user of a document file having a low use frequency, provisionally deleting the document file by the first user, notifying a second user of the deletion information, finally making determination by the second user, and practically letting the document file.
However, although a conventional system manages a document file depending on the use frequency of the document file, it hardly performs the management depending on the significance of the document file. That is, conventionally, a document that is important (confidential) in strategy for a corporation and a document that is not so important have been managed at the same level. Furthermore, the review period for each document file has been uncertain and the histories of files have not been managed.
Therefore, there has been the possibility that a document file not to be frequently reviewed is frequently reviewed, or a document file to be frequently reviewed is rarely reviewed. Furthermore, since history management is not appropriately performed, it is necessary to check a document file updated at a specific time, thereby wasting time.
The management of review of a document file and associated update have been manually performed. Therefore, there has been the possibility that a user forgets reviewing a document file in a review period, and makes an obsolete document file. Furthermore, with an increasing number of documents to be reviewed, the trouble and the load of reviewing the documents also increase.